The rest of my first weekend

Today Melissa and I went shopping for some much needed items. First, we stopped at the Post Office so I could exchange my money for some British cash. I was glancing around the tiny shop while waited for Melissa to finish mailing some postcards, and what do my eyes fall upon but a small drink stand with - drum roll please - Dr. Pepper!! Apparently, Ireland hasn't done away with it like one girl had told me. I was so thrilled, I bought a bottle right then and there and drank up the 23-flavor goodness. Yummm!!

After that, we waited at the bus stop for a ride into Downtown. Here is a picture of me about to go on my first bus ride - woo hoo!



iWe stopped at a, well, what would be a dollar store in the U.S. so I suppose it was maybe a pound store?? Anywho, I bought my much-needed umbrella for a pound and a beautiful new scarf for 3 pounds, I believe. (I lost my other scarf at the Ceilidh on Thursday night. Sad day.) We ran into a German girl Melissa knew named Clarissa. She said she was meeting up with another one of their German friends (even thought they had all met only a few days previous) in the mall, so that was our next destination.

I was able to purchase a hair dryer there - hooray!!! I also looked around for a hat. Melissa and I found a few hopefuls while Clarissa headed off to the cell phone store. Most everybody buys a cell phone here and does a pay-as-you-go deal. It's better than paying for massive international rates on their regular phones.

We briefly gathered back together with the other friend, named Linda. We chatted for just a bit, then went our separate ways. Melissa and I headed back outside the mall to look at the shops along the road. We stopped in a a shoe store called Schuh, which is German for, well, you can figure it out. I found a perfect bag there to carry my school things, so I was happy with it. I also bought a tote that said "schuh" on it just because. It was incredibly cheap (it must have been on sale), and I told Melissa it would remind me of her because it'd be my German bag. :)

We started getting hungry and decided to look for a place to eat. Passing a tour bus waiting for passengers, Melissa got an idea and went and asked them what they suggested for a good, Irish meal. The man directed to us a pub called Monaco Bar. I was so excited to be there. Melissa just kept laughing at me all day because I was so thrilled by such mundane things as riding a bus and going to a pub. I, of course, to pictures of my first pub experience:


The stew was way too much for me to finish in one sitting - as usual - so I went up and asked if I could have a carry out dish. I am getting the impression that that's not a normal thing here. The guy did get one for me, tho, but a woman had already taken my dish away, so I ended up scooping it into the carry out dish at the bar. It was really awkward. Oh well, though. Now I have another meal in the fridge that's already made.

We had to take the bus back to Elm's Village - the place where we live - then in order to be on time for the IKEA shopping trip. A bunch of local people had volunteered to drive us to IKEA. I went with Melissa and an American guy named Brendan. Our driver's name was Rachel, I think. She was native to Belfast. Nothing too eventful happened at IKEA, except for me almost tripping UP the stairs with a large bag of purchases. Only I could do that.

Once home again, I was eager to FINALLY finish unpacking and setting my room up. It is all nice and tidy and ready now, so I like it. :)

Later that night, Melissa and I went out again. We had not heard from anyone in particular as far as plans go, but we both were hungry and had no groceries, so food it was. I know everyone told that everything closes really early at night, but I figured things would be a bit different for a Saturday night. Apparently not. Melissa and I walked a very long way up and down a street of shops and food places and EVERYTHING was closed. There was one bar that we finally saw open in which the food did not cost 15 pounds per plate. Then, when we asked for some menus, the bartender informed us that they didn't serve food this late. Gah! We were both getting pretty desperate to eat something, and were just about to turn to go back home (I did at least have some cereal and milk) when I spotted a Subway. After having several days in a row of eating food that was different to me, my heart lept at the sight of that lovely yellow and white sign. As it turns out, they were closing at 8 and it was something like 7:58 when we walked in. They let us order, though. We decided not to eat in since they wanted to close on time, so I suggested we go to the SU.

I figured if we ordered drinks from Clements, we could eat our subs in there. Only after I had ordered my peppermint tea did I see the big sign that said: Only food bought on the premises is permitted here. Ay ay ay. Melissa and I were so hungry! I put my tea in a to-go cup and we tried the upstairs. There was no one there, and it looked like it might have been closed, but we were both so desperate just to have a place to sit and eat that we didn't care. Luckily, the security didn't come to inform that he was closing up until after we'd each finished our subs.

On the way home, we were both baffled by how not-active the whole place was. Students were nowhere to be seen, and as far as we could tell, almost everywhere was closed. Where did all the people GO on Saturday night?? We happened to pass by a fellow international student - Kristian from Norway - and he informed of a small get-together at someone's place to watch a movie. We gladly accepted the invitation to come along.

The guy whose room we went to was named Nicholas (though I'm fairly sure it's spelled some other way). He is Belgian. The other people who were there were as follows: two Canadian girls named Allison (who people say looks like me) and Layla, a German guy named Benny I think, a French guy I'd met earlier named Simon (pronounced see-moan), another Belgian named Laurent who was good friends with Nicholas from way back, and Kristian the Norwegian. It ended up that the movie wasn't going to work because of the slow internet connection, so we just sat around and talked for several hours. It was very enjoyable. At one point Simon discovered that I had never heard/seen techtonique (at least that's how it sounds like it's spelled). Apparently it's this really odd but complicated dancing style that originated in France. They pulled up a few videos on youtube so I could see what it was. Simon said that when it first came out, it was really popular, but that it's kind of out-dated in France now and people who dance like that at clubs and stuff are usually just stared and laughed at. Here's a link to one of the videos we watched. It's so weird:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iz4bzcOvCt4

Well, I don't have time to write about today anymore. I'm late for a Superbowl party. Tomorrow I start my first day of classes so wish me luck! :)